As if the ongoing protests in France against raising the retirement age to 64 years, and against high prices are not enough, they were recently joined by great anger within universities, after it was proven that the former Minister of Higher Education was involved in promoting false data that harmed the interests of French universities.
The French newspaper "Le Monde" revealed in a report that former Minister Frédéric Vidal never officially asked for an investigation into all research and studies and to seize everything related to what she called at the time "the Islamic left current", contrary to what she had stated inside Parliament.
In France, the term "Islamic left" is used for slander, denoting the affinity or support of left-wing French figures or bodies for Muslims. The term was coined by writer Pierre-André Tagev in 2002 and has been used by many right-wing politicians in their war against their intellectual and political opponents.
Official recognition
According to the newspaper, officials of the French Ministry of Higher Education have now sent a defense memorandum to the Administrative Court in Paris this March asserting that Minister Vidal has not assigned anyone to follow up and carry out any investigation into what she has previously said inside the dome of the National Assembly (Parliament).
Minister Vidal told local television on February 14, 2021 that she condemned what she said was "a phenomenon that is eating away at French society, and that the French University does not seem to be immune to it," referring to the "Islamic left."
Two days later, the minister revealed in the National Assembly that she had ordered the establishment of a mechanism for "evaluation of all research" in order to "distinguish what concerns academic research from all research dominated by opinion."
Spend
The Administrative Court of Paris is pursuing the case of six research professors against former Minister Vidal, on charges of abuse of power.
Le Monde quoted lawyers for the six professors as saying that the recent admission of Ministry of Higher Education officials reveals the absence of any political and legal responsibility, noting that Vidal's statements created a "climate of intimidation within the academic world" and contributed to the spread of "hate speech."
Le Monde confirmed that the French minister's statement caused a great stir since its issuance, which prompted the Elysee Palace and the government not to support it, at a time when the gathering of French university presidents revolted against it.
The National Center for Scientific Research (tasked with carrying out the official investigation) also criticized that talk of the Islamist left "does not correspond to any scientific fact," lamenting the deliberate use of science and scientific research in a political debate.
The French newspaper said that the complainants assert that Minister Vidal's statement, and the atmosphere it created, caused the suspension of many researches and the cancellation of many scientific and cultural projects.
They stressed that the ministry's own two-year wait after Frédéric Vidal's statement to clarify that there is no investigation procedure, and that what happened is nothing more than a statement with no legal consequences, is a policy of intimidation aimed at discouraging the practice of "critical knowledge" and encouraging opponents inside and outside academia to undermine the reputation of researchers.
On the other hand, the French newspaper "Liberation" described the statement of former Minister Vidal as a "lie", and said that the destruction of that lie came from within her ministry itself.